News

IT for government and public sector

April 18, 2019 18 Apr'19
State-sponsored hackers are hijacking DNS, researchers warn

A DNS-hijacking campaign targeting the Middle East and Africa may lead to actors more broadly attacking the global DNS system
April 17, 2019 17 Apr'19
UK government to introduce online porn age checks

World-first regulations will see age verification introduced in July and enforced by the British Board of Film Classification. Non-compliant sites risk withdrawal of payment services or being blocked
April 17, 2019 17 Apr'19
HM Land Registry completes blockchain trial

HM Land Registry’s blockchain project is part of a wider digital transformation initiative which aims to simplify and speed up the process of buying and selling property
April 17, 2019 17 Apr'19
Government says no conflict of interest in trial despite Post Office chairman’s dual role

BEIS refutes MP’s suggestion of Post Office chairman’s conflict of interest in group litigation case involving Horizon IT system

April 17, 2019 17 Apr'19
Middle East CIOs optimistic as budgets increase and digital transformations expand

Cyber security and risk management will see the biggest increase in spending, but digital transformation of businesses is a major driver of investment, survey shows
April 17, 2019 17 Apr'19
TfL suspends Wi-Fi service as Extinction Rebellion spreads

Transport for London has cut off its public Virgin Media Wi-Fi service to disrupt climate change protests
April 16, 2019 16 Apr'19
Home Office curbs bulk emails following data breach

Department has introduced new rules for mass messaging after exposing email addresses of EU settled status scheme applicants
April 16, 2019 16 Apr'19
Findings published from three-month pilot for NHS App

Biometric login functionality and additional repeat prescription ordering capability are among the enhancements made in response to user feedback to the NHS App
April 16, 2019 16 Apr'19
MP questions government over Post Office Horizon case

Labour MP asks the government about the costs associated with the Post Office Horizon legal battle
April 16, 2019 16 Apr'19
Dutch national weather service adopts cloud to expand service offerings

The migration of legacy systems to an AWS set-up will precede the design of a real-time early warning centre for the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute

April 15, 2019 15 Apr'19
Post-Brexit IT talent shortages concern UK CIOs

Finding and training tech staff remains an issue and is set to get worse after the UK leaves the European Union, says Barclaycard study
April 15, 2019 15 Apr'19
NHS launches care home availability portal

New tool is aimed at optimising hospital occupancy and saving social care staff “hours of phoning around”
April 15, 2019 15 Apr'19
NCSC seeks new breed of cyber security startups

The UK intelligence community is seeking to promote a new breed of technology startup to help detect, respond to and facilitate rapid recoveries from cyber attacks on the UK
April 12, 2019 12 Apr'19
UK government launches cloud sustainability probe

Government departments are being asked to provide information about the energy footprint of the cloud services they use
April 12, 2019 12 Apr'19
Mott MacDonald builds smart cities on Azure cloud

The Microsoft cloud will be used to run digital twins of city infrastructure to help city planners manage infrastructure more effectively
April 12, 2019 12 Apr'19
Police local cyber crime units get multimillion pound boost

UK policing marks the completion of the local phase of a national cyber crime programme to complement regional and national response capabilities
April 12, 2019 12 Apr'19
Lancaster University enhances student engagement with cloud-based chatbot

University is using Amazon Web Services to enhance the development of a voice-enabled “online companion” with machine learning and artificial intelligence
April 11, 2019 11 Apr'19
European Commission tackles transformation challenges with cloud

Modernisation plan continues at the EC, with an upcoming migration and major savings on the horizon
April 10, 2019 10 Apr'19
EC publishes artificial intelligence guidelines

Report is intended as a starting point of an international discussion around trustworthy AI and its recommendations will be put to the test in a trial later this year
April 09, 2019 09 Apr'19
Judge in Post Office trial rejects application to recuse himself

The Post Office’s claim that the judge overseeing the case concerning its controversial Horizon IT system was biased has been dismissed – but will now be considered by the Court of Appeal
April 09, 2019 09 Apr'19
UK councils team up to boost cyber security

Three UK councils and data analysis firm Splunk have teamed up to improve cyber defence capabilities and maintain their security systems
April 09, 2019 09 Apr'19
GCHQ cyber courses for teens recognised by qualification board

The Scottish Qualifications Authority has accredited courses pioneered by GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre to teach teenagers about cyber security
April 08, 2019 08 Apr'19
UK introduces world’s first online safety regulations

Announcing ‘the end of online self-regulation’, a duty of care is introduced to hold companies accountable for potential harm and safety of users of their services
April 05, 2019 05 Apr'19
NHS IT jobs need to be promoted differently

More ambition and a mindset change is required to attract more technology talent to the national health service
April 05, 2019 05 Apr'19
Dutch government to make AI national priority

The Dutch government wants to increase its focus on the artificial intelligence sector, as other countries gain an advantage
April 04, 2019 04 Apr'19
No-deal Brexit threatens future of UK CAV sector

The UK has turned itself into a global leader for connected and autonomous vehicles, but its position is at risk because of Brexit, a new report warns
April 04, 2019 04 Apr'19
Social inclusion unit aims to expand diversity in IT conversation

New unit at startup hub wants to explore how technology can be applied to address the barriers many people face in participating in society
April 04, 2019 04 Apr'19
National Savings and Investments makes £300m extension to Atos deal

UK government-owned savings bank adds three years to IT services contract with French supplier
April 04, 2019 04 Apr'19
NHSX announces new leadership

DCMS director-general Matthew Gould is to take over as chief executive of the NHSX, with recruitment set to accelerate at the newly formed digital strategy unit
April 04, 2019 04 Apr'19
Enhanced Wi-Fi cuts costs to maximise efficiency at Dorset school

The need for cost-effective, manageable wireless infrastructure without additional annual licence fees drove Lytchett Minster School’s decision to upgrade its on-site network with TP-Link
April 04, 2019 04 Apr'19
Post Office to appeal judgment from first Horizon trial

The Post Office will appeal against some of the judgments from the first trial concerning the Horizon computer system used by subpostmasters
April 03, 2019 03 Apr'19
Home Office Brexit app will work on Apple devices

An agreement has been reached to make the app for EU nationals to apply for settlement in the UK work on iOS-based products
April 03, 2019 03 Apr'19
Government urges businesses and charities to up cyber security

The UK government is urging businesses and charities to take action to prevent cyber attacks as the costs go up, despite an overall reduction in breaches, partly driven by new data protection laws
April 03, 2019 03 Apr'19
MI5 and the Met ramp up use of analytics to tackle terrorism

Police and intelligence organisations are working on technologies that will help “sharpen radars” around detecting terrorist intents
April 03, 2019 03 Apr'19
Most business decision-makers and knowledge workers happy to work alongside robots

Fears that automation will remove jobs for knowledge workers are reducing as opportunities emerge to upskill and eradicate mundane work
April 03, 2019 03 Apr'19
Government invests £10m in education technology strategy

The UK government has launched a strategy encouraging technology companies to help schools use technology to reduce teacher workload, among other things
April 02, 2019 02 Apr'19
Government invests in knife-detection tech research

The Home Office and the Department for Transport are channelling more than £460,000 into fast-tracking the development and deployment of technologies that can detect concealed blades in public spaces
April 02, 2019 02 Apr'19
SMEs forced into automation as Making Tax Digital goes live

Small businesses are faced with all manner of challenges as the government presses ahead with its plan to digitise the UK tax system
April 02, 2019 02 Apr'19
Four in 10 leading banks failing on email fraud protection

Top UK traditional and challenger banks risk exposing customers to email fraud, a study reveals
April 02, 2019 02 Apr'19
Huawei reports record numbers despite tumultuous year

Huawei has become one of the world’s largest technology companies by revenue, suggesting the accusations over its ties to the Chinese government are failing to have much impact
April 02, 2019 02 Apr'19
Post Office could face huge costs bill for first Horizon trial

Subpostmaster claimants’ legal team makes application for the Post Office to pay millions of pounds of costs associated with trial
April 02, 2019 02 Apr'19
Welsh government buys Microsoft Office 365 for teachers and pupils

The Welsh government will provide Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus across 1,521 maintained schools in Wales
April 01, 2019 01 Apr'19
Digital industries lead UK economy

Technology, media and creative businesses are leading national economic growth, according to research
March 29, 2019 29 Mar'19
How research firm Icon is using analytics and wearables to enhance clinical trials

The company is investing in emergent technology to boost the attractiveness of trials as a care option and attract more participants, while enhancing internal efficiency around drug and device development.
March 29, 2019 29 Mar'19
Met Office seeks chief information security officer

The national weather service wants to recruit a new leader to spearhead a cyber security enhancement programme
March 29, 2019 29 Mar'19
Interview: Mark Gray, director of digital transformation, Crown Prosecution Service

The introduction of fully digital services to improve stakeholder engagement is among the highlights of a world-first transformation initiative in the criminal justice system
March 28, 2019 28 Mar'19
Swan lands in Scottish Highlands

Capita’s Scottish public sector network, also known as Swan, is to be extended to 150 sites in the Highland towns of Fort William, Inverness, Thurso and Wick
March 28, 2019 28 Mar'19
Infosec pros slam government-mandated backdoors

Government-mandated encryption backdoors increase vulnerability to nation-state attacks, according to the majority of cyber security professionals
March 28, 2019 28 Mar'19
Huawei making no progress on addressing security concerns

Huawei has made no material progress on addressing the issues identified last year by the NCSC, according to the latest highly critical report from its HSCEC Oversight Board
March 28, 2019 28 Mar'19
Post Office made to repay public money it allocated to fund Horizon litigation

A senior civil servant asked the Post Office to repay public money it had wrongly allocated to paying legal costs